It may be cos i'm an old git and think everything was better 'bitd' but the football, the nightclubs, the pubs, all seemed to have a better atmosphere then, maybe it's cos folk have their heads down more now, studying their phones etc.

It may be cos i'm an old git and think everything was better 'bitd' but the football, the nightclubs, the pubs, all seemed to have a better atmosphere then, maybe it's cos folk have their heads down more now, studying their phones etc.

A dog lover, whose female dog came "in heat," was concerned about keeping it and her male separated. But,
she had a Large house

However, as she was drifting off to sleep, she heard awful howling and moaning sounds. She rushed downstairs and found the dogs locked together and unable to disengage, as frequently happens when dogs mate.

Unable to separate them; perplexed as to what to do next, although it was very late at night, she called her vet, who answered in a very grumpy voice.

After she explained the problem to him, the vet said, "Hang up the phone and place it down alongside the dogs.

I will then call you back and the noise of the ringing will make the male lose his erection and he will be able to withdraw."

It may be cos i'm an old git and think everything was better 'bitd' but the football, the nightclubs, the pubs, all seemed to have a better atmosphere then, maybe it's cos folk have their heads down more now, studying their phones etc.

So today marks 10 years since I started taking our rather large Super Rams Flag to the games. A cold Monday night in the capital where we drew 2 2 with Charlton back on 15 December 2008, a last minute Nathan Ellington equaliser.
Having been purchased by Ramstrust through the sales of badges a couple of years previous it had been left in a shed for around a year and unused. I saw a thread on the popular Derby Telegraph fans forum (now known as dcfcfans.co.uk) asking if anyone wanted to look after it and take to the games due to its demise so thought yeah why not, can't be that hard! Not sure what happened in truth but there you go. The Ramstrust view at the time was that they wanted it on the pitch before games with the kids. The chap that passed it to be made me promise that it would be in the stands and 10 years later I would like to think I have kept that promise.
Soon realised how hard it was going to be after carrying 18kgs on a train and tube to the ground! The flag that night got some great footage on the cameras and everyone was asking where it had been etc …
Roll forward 10 years and it has done a fair bit including 50 different stadiums in the league and 7 European stadiums (Bohemians, Utrecht, Hannover, Algarve, Graz, Marbella and Kaiserslautern). It has also done 3 piers in Blackpool, Bournemouth and Brighton. The latter actually made it into the local press in Brighton! It was also present at the funeral of Dougie (Badgeman) at the family’s request.
Not being too much of a statto I reckon it has probably done 350-400 games or so over the 10 years I have looked after it.
Few stories if you are interested.
When over in Graz for pre season under Stevie Mac it absolutely lashed it down! This caused us a bit of a problem as the flag, which normally weighs 18kg, all of a sudden weighed around 30kg with all the water. We were flying home the next day from Budapest and naturally didn’t want to pay any excess baggage fees! So on arrival to a very sunny Budapest airport we decided to lay it out and get it dry. Before we knew it, the airport security and police were on us asking what we were protesting about. Thankfully they understood what we were doing and the flag dried out enough so no excess baggage charges were payable.
The worst place, without doubt, that I have surfed it would have to be at Upton Park when playing West Ham. As it was tight knit place we needed some space to get it set out. The amount of abuse coming our way from the home end was very strong, not to mention a fair bit of spit. Look back on that day though and have a chuckle.
Only time any fans in the ground have tried to get at it was Boro away a couple of years ago. We were 3 nil up and they were getting mardy. Its on youtube if you have a spare 5 minutes. Bottles of coke thrown at it and a half attempted pull at it to drag it down but being a former scout, my knots are good 😉
Only ever time I messed the surf up was Leeds at home on Boxing day some years ago when I just got it wrong and it ended up upside down. Fair bit of abuse from them lot for that.
Smallest ground it has ever done was Forest Green away in the cup when the flag was actually bigger than the stand! That walk up the hill though carrying 18kgs, I am not fit and wasn’t fit then!
Kaiserslautern away was an interesting one. We were followed out the ground for a good 20 minutes by a couple of well known flag thieves that wanted to add it to their collection in there local pub. Of course, it never happened.
Always interesting when I speak to clubs beforehand, some are great and some are clueless. For example it did Old Trafford back in 2008 in the cup yet wasn’t allowed for the recent game these past couple of years. They were advising that they needed a special team to assist with it which is garbage. Same with Chelsea, apparently wasn’t enough room to store it after the surf, which as I know was rubbish. I find premier league clubs much harder to deal with than football league clubs.
Wembley 2008. Where it all went wrong! Steve Else had kindly offered to take it on the coach with him as I was on the train. I was due to call him when I arrived but in amongst the pre game atmosphere in London I smashed my phone and it broke and we never got it in. Knew as soon as my phone had smashed that the day was not going to end well.
Big thank you to anyone that has assisted over the years to keep the flag flying. It is the biggest flag in all the leagues that goes away from home. Massive thanks to Derby County who allow the flag to travel on the team coach which makes the job alot easier.
Also a big thank you to Jon Davidson (kitman) and the girls in the wash room who regularly wash it for us. Unfortunately I don’t have a big enough washing machine so appreciate.
Come Monday night it will be out again as always.
The East Midlands will always be Black & White. Come on you Rams!!
Nick

It may be cos i'm an old git and think everything was better 'bitd' but the football, the nightclubs, the pubs, all seemed to have a better atmosphere then, maybe it's cos folk have their heads down more now, studying their phones etc.

No way was the Ley Stand 'old hat', we were over 25% on our way to having a very modern stadium, i'd argue we'd still be in the Prem if we had taken the 'rebuild a stand' for 3 'close seasons' option. I suppose the close proxomity of the local residents had a lot to do with the decision to relocate, along with parking issues.

It may be cos i'm an old git and think everything was better 'bitd' but the football, the nightclubs, the pubs, all seemed to have a better atmosphere then, maybe it's cos folk have their heads down more now, studying their phones etc.

I am glad you made the transition I never have, to me watching Derby meant the BBG .I suppose a fair part of that feeling was it was the most successful part of our history .
The old city / urban grounds that didn't move to business / retail parks have a feeling about them that PP and similar can't replicate. Newcastle is one that springs to mind as well as Villa Park .
Maybe one of the reasons [as well as winding us up] that the red dogs harp on about the success they had is they can still visit the site of their success every week .
I feel totally detached from our former glories as it only exists in the internet .

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